


Watch the Fires

by SleepsWithCoyotes



Category: Drag-On Dragoon | Drakengard, Kingdom Hearts, Star Ocean: The Second Story | Second Evolution, Vagrant Story
Genre: Community: no_true_pair, Crossover, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-04-11
Updated: 2017-04-11
Packaged: 2018-10-17 14:33:04
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 9,691
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10595988
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SleepsWithCoyotes/pseuds/SleepsWithCoyotes
Summary: In which everyone finds out what happens when you poke a Bomb with a stick.





	

**Author's Note:**

> Archiving old fic from 2008. Written for the no_true_pair challenge on IJ. Prompt: Axel and Riku: _it's the end of the world as we know it, and I feel fine_

Bone-tired as he was--and even that was better than Kairi's sick exhaustion, and he was being very careful not to move so she could keep on sleeping, her head in his lap--Sora roused enough to toss a curious look at Riku as their friend ducked into the cockpit of the gummi ship. They'd been fighting hard, all of them, but that didn't really explain why Riku still had Way to Dawn clutched in one hand, face pale, somewhere between spooked and stunned. He hoped it wasn't more of those cyclops things; he never wanted to see anything that big and that ugly again.

"What?" he asked when Riku didn't throw himself behind the controls or start gesturing for him to sneak out and leave Kairi sleeping. Kairi didn't even stir at the sound of his voice, which just went to show how wiped-out she was. As if sleeping curled up on the floor wasn't clue enough.

Riku shook his head, hovering just behind the pilot's chair, but after a moment he shrugged. "That...that guy with the dragon. He--"

"Caim? Did you actually hear him talk?"

Riku snorted softly, rolling his eyes. "He _can't_ talk, Sora. Weren't you paying attention? He traded his voice for a pact with the dragon...and the dragon talks just fine."

"Oh." He thought about that for a moment, then shrugged. "What'd they want?"

"I'm not sure. I think they meant to give this to you."

Sora lifted a hand automatically to take what Riku held out, but at the last minute he curled his fingers away, pulled his hand back. The short length of chain that dangled from Riku's fist looked like steel, polished and plain, but the charm dangling from it was probably carved ruby, red as the scales of Caim's pact-beast. It was a Keychain, that much was obvious, but...something told him it wasn't meant for him.

"Nope," he said, grinning a little as he tore his eyes away from the exquisitely carved dragon. "Congratulations, Riku; when total strangers start giving you mystical items, that makes you officially a hero."

Maybe he shouldn't have said it that way. Riku was already a hero ten times over as far as Sora was concerned. But Riku had been teasing him just the other day that he'd read so many fairytales as a kid, he'd been doing it by the book ever since: picking up helpful strangers on the road, getting his wardrobe from fairy godmothers, saving princesses. He couldn't help enjoying the fact that it was finally Riku's turn.

"Wiseass," Riku murmured, but the spooked look was fading from his eyes, almost-shy speculation taking its place.

When he attached the Keychain to Way to Dawn's hilt, Sora noticed he didn't remove the one that was already there, the tiny black Heartless symbol glinting faintly as it swung. It didn't seem to matter; maybe the entertwined blades made that possible. For a moment Riku's Keyblade flickered through changes, the demon blade's edges growing sharper, the angelic half smoothing out, white feathers morphing into a silver dragon's wing. Then the whole thing seemed to settle, and it looked the same as it always did. The ruby Keychain appeared to have vanished.

It was still there, though. Sora could feel it. He hadn't known he could do that.

"So? What does it do?" He hated to break into Riku's amazed trance, but the suspense was killing him.

"I'm not sure," Riku said slowly, "but I can feel dragons."

"Outside?" It was worth a worried tone; the dragons of this world had no use for humans at all, and the Empire's dragons would have attacked them on sight before the Heartless had come to disrupt a war Sora still didn't quite understand.

"No. In my head."

He sort of expected Riku to be mad about that, but Riku shook it off with surprising ease, hesitating only a moment longer before sliding into the pilot's seat and letting his Keyblade go. He left the dragon Keychain where it was, and that made Sora duck his head to hide a grin, grateful and relieved.

He still didn't know everything that had happened the first time they'd been separated, but it seemed like Riku was finally getting over it, healing at last.

Carding his fingers through the soft strands of Kairi's hair, Sora leaned back against the wall of the ship, letting his eyes fall closed with a smile. Doing things by the book wasn't so bad. He was just glad fairytales seemed to like threes; he'd known it was only a matter of time before they finally got to do the story _right._

***

Clapping her hands over her mouth would have been too obvious, but Kairi couldn't help biting her lip as she fought not to giggle. She knew Riku wouldn't have minded so much--he'd just toss a long-suffering look her way and roll his eyes--but she wouldn't have embarrassed Ashton for the world. He was far too nice for that, and it took real guts to corner Riku with a shy look and a halting stammer, even when Riku looked like he might just turn you down politely.

The dragons Ashton had been fused with looked far too interested in the entire situation, blue Ururun peering curiously over Ashton's shoulder to glance between the two, red Gyoro eyeing Riku with a speculative gleam Kairi hadn't expected but suspected she should have. Ashton and the dragons shared a single body; it wasn't all that surprising that they might share other things as well.

"Um, well...it's not very good," Ashton was saying, ducking his head a little as he reached into a pocket, hesitated, and thrust his hand out all at once. "But we, er, made this for you."

Now Riku looked surprised, relaxing as he forgot to steel himself against the sort of confession he hated, and Kairi felt like cheering Ashton on. Distract Riku from the awkwardness, give him something to puzzle over, do the unexpected--she almost wondered if Ashton had been coached by Sora, but only for a moment.

As Riku called his Keyblade to him, curiosity drew Kairi closer, not least of which because Ashton looked like he was holding his breath, not scared but in an agony of anticipation. Waiting to see if it would work, she decided as Riku tipped the blade downward and away, holding it hilt-up as he fixed the new Keychain there.

She only got a brief look at it, but it was obvious Ashton was being far too modest. It was _very_ good, an intertwined twist of coppery red and bluish white, flame and ice, or maybe water. There was the same subtle flash when it connected as when Sora replaced his own Keychains, but the change was both less dramatic and more. The demon-wing half of Riku's Keyblade burst abruptly into flame, metal melting into fire while retaining its shape, and the angel wing flowed, froze, and melted again, shedding a cool mist that left vapor trails in the air.

"Oh," Riku murmured, disconcerted for a moment before he broke into a delighted smile. " _Oh._ Thank you. Magic isn't my strong point."

"You're--you're welcome," Ashton replied, embarrassed but elated, and retreated in a confused babble of goodbyes and 'visit-again-sometime's before he could get anything more useful out.

Way to Dawn changed shape yet again as the Keychain faded away, but Kairi didn't think it was actually gone. Mostly she suspected Riku's Keyblade was too much like its master, with a heart big enough to hold half a planet in its care but far too wary to let it show. Unless you knew what to look for, of course.

Nudging Riku in the side with her elbow, she tipped a smile up at him and said, "I think he likes you."

"Who?" Sora asked with a budding grin and no surprise whatsoever, coming up on Riku's other side with a slice of one of Rena's cakes in one hand. One thing for certain, they were all going to miss these people's cooking.

"Ashton," Kairi replied when it became clear Riku wasn't going to.

Sora made an odd sort of noise at that, strangled, embarrassed, and half hysterical, then stopped all at once and cocked his head, eyes going wide and thoughtful. "Well...when you think about it, Riku's probably the only one who wouldn't get freaked out by the dragons."

And now Kairi was _thinking_ about it again, and oh, wow, embarrassing.

"Uh...Dias?" Riku countered in the tone of someone jogging memories that shouldn't need the reminder.

Kairi started. "Oh. You really think so?"

"You don't? He's totally obvious."

Sora groaned, but he was grinning all the same. "I don't know you people."

"Hmph. You're just jealous because I'm getting all the loot."

Sora snickered. "Am not. Wait. What loot?"

"Ashton gave him a Keychain," Kairi offered, smiling at the instant curiosity that lit Sora's face, wholly unselfish. "But," she asked Riku, "what do you mean magic isn't your strong point? What about the darkness?"

"That's not magic," Riku said dismissively, then stopped, surprised by his own words. She could practically see the wheels turning as he thought it over, but in the end he could only shrug. "It's...I don't know why, but it's just not."

"Huh," Sora said, but he didn't sound worried. "So what does this new Keychain do?"

"No clue," Riku replied with a shrug, "except that it's elemental. But the way our luck runs, we'll find out on the next world."

Kairi thought he was probably right, though she privately doubted any Keychain could possibly be as cool as the dragon-summoning one Caim had given him. Still, she was more than willing to be impressed.

"What is it with you and dragons, anyway?" she asked, grinning as she waited to see whether Riku would be embarrassed or smug. She could hardly blame the people they met for being smitten with him; he'd been shooting up fast this past year, growing into the arrogance of his stance while growing out of the arrogance itself, and there was something about him that put people like Ashton and Caim at ease. Maybe it was because Riku knew better than most what made a monster what it was, that what someone looked like meant less than anything.

One corner of Riku's mouth tipped up uncertainly, but in the end he only shrugged. "Just lucky, I guess."

He'd gotten far too fatalistic lately, so she poked him to make him squirm, laughing, and that made everything better.

***

He hadn't wanted to make a fuss at the time, but when he'd attached the Keychain Ashton and the dragons had given him, just like that there'd been a pair of presences inside his head. They weren't obtrusive, weren't _controlling,_ but the dim impressions of thought at the back of his mind weren't his own. His fingers at first had itched to rip the thing right back off again, but even then he'd been able to tell that it was nothing like having Xehanort's Heartless crouched inside his skull, waiting to take him over. It wasn't possession; it was connection.

That same connection had opened up some place inside his head he'd never been able to tap into before, let him wrap his mind around the idea of magic that had nothing to do with darkness or light for the very first time. All at once he could cast Fire, Ice and Water even better than Sora--almost as good as Kairi--and if he poured enough power into that place where he and the presences were joined, he could summon a pair of elementals to fight at his side.

It was hard to make out something as detailed as expression on something that was a formed mass of its own element, but the water elemental had seemed surprised the first time he summoned it. Starting almost comically as it took shape, it had done a double-take between Riku and the Ifreet he wanted destroyed, then pointed a watery finger at its own chest. Riku hadn't been able to help it; he knew he ought to be worried about the fight, but he'd been laughing out loud, feeling curiously _light,_ even as the elemental shrugged, cracked amorphous knuckles, and got down to business. There was nothing particularly familiar about it except that it reminded him at times of Sora, but he got the feeling that he would have liked the spirit immensely if he'd met it in a different body, a different place.

It was the fire elemental--volatile, teasing and unpredictable--that made his skin prickle with gooseflesh sometimes, not that it ever gave him any reason to doubt its motives. It liked being summoned, loved its flames the way fire loved air, warmed to him more and more each time he called it or borrowed its flames and let it feel the glow. Riku could have removed the Keychain at any time, separated himself from those strange guests inside his head, but he didn't. If the fire elemental seemed a little too familiar, a little too much like someone he'd known before, it was easy enough to tell himself he was imagining it, that maybe all pyromaniacs were the same when you got down to it. If you believed in coincidences, of course.

"Thanks for your help," Sora was saying, earnest and well-meaning and keeping his eyes quite firmly on Sydney's face. "That was...um... _big."_

Losstarot's smile was far too innocent for anyone's good, though the presence of the Riskbreaker at his side seemed to be keeping the sharp side of his tongue in check. "It was nothing," the prophet said modestly, ignoring Ashley's amused snort. "Really; one would think you'd never seen an archdragon before."

"We're starting to get used to dragons," Kairi replied wryly, spearing Riku with a glance. He didn't know why she was looking at him; this one hadn't been his fault in the slightest.

Sydney chuckled, shaking his head. "All things considered, that seems entirely wise." And then he curled one clawed finger in and poked the Riskbreaker with a blunt knuckle.

Ashley's faint smile was incredibly patient, but his eyes were warm as he left Sydney's side. "We have something for you," he said, catching Riku's gaze when Riku would have turned to Sora. "Blame Sydney if it doesn't turn out to be what you expect."

Though Sora had the greater collection by far, it was getting to the point where Riku expected random people to give him Keychains. Sometimes he wondered where they came from, what people did with them if the wrong Keyblade Master showed up. He could always tell when one was meant for Sora, and they never seemed to overlap. Maybe they just ended up in someone's jewelry box or utility drawer, waiting for their time to come around.

He could feel the rightness of this one even before he touched it, its power reaching out and twining around his fingers in welcome. Maybe that was what quirked Ashley's smile, or maybe it was Riku's startled breath when he realized Ashley wasn't wearing his ubiquitous necklace anymore, that the five-pointed blade of the Keychain's charm looked startlingly familiar.

"Is this...?" Hadn't Kairi said that necklace had belonged to Ashley's wife?

It was Sydney who answered, which didn't surprise him, nor did the fact that Sydney's reply actually explained nothing at all.

"There's little you'll ever need to be taught about the Dark," the prophet said, as purring and pleased as if he'd raised Riku up himself. "But this should help you with the Light as well."

Riku nodded anyway, summoning his Keyblade in a move so practiced it required no thought at all. Even knowing this Keychain was meant for him, he found himself oddly reluctant to attach it, not quite certain what it would do. Though both men were so steeped in darkness he could have tracked them blindfolded again, he found he trusted them both, even Sydney with his barbed sense of humor and the unthinking, overwhelming charisma that drove people to do the most embarrassing things. Maybe it was himself he didn't trust.

But if he said something like that out loud, Kairi would kick his ass, and Sora would help. Better to just get it over with and worry about damage control later.

Attaching the Rood Blade Keychain, he felt the now-familiar snap in his head as things connected, though nothing happened at first. Way to Dawn looked exactly the same as it ever did without even a token change, and the only thing he felt inside his head was silence, emptiness, waiting. A vast, sleeping darkness filled with curled shapes tucked close around flickers of light, far-off motes of whirling sparks, and somewhere something...something _enormous,_ that stirred and noticed him and yawned wide to invite him--

His entire body jerked as he pulled his thoughts away, wrenched himself back to the present and stared wide-eyed and shaken at Sydney's too-knowing smile. "This--"

"I leave it to you to decide when to use it," Sydney interrupted him, and he found he couldn't speak even to protest, disbelief sealing his throat. He could tell Sora and Kairi were worried, but he shook his head, managed a smile, and they made their goodbyes in peace.

"Riku?" Sora asked carefully as they boarded the gummi ship and turned it back towards Radiant Garden at last.

"It's okay. Just...powerful. Really, really powerful."

"Oh, man. You had me worried," Sora said, his relieved smile and the trust in his eyes closing Riku's throat for the second time that day.

Gaia was a long way from Ivalice, and he dreamed that night of walking through the shattered streets of Leá Monde, listening to unfamiliar birdsong and the whistle of the wind through cracked walls, the sun warm on his face. It hardly seemed like the same place, but without the Heartless to stir up the dark city's defenders, maybe these quiet, shady avenues were closer to the truth.

Picking a direction that would take him closer to the Great Cathedral, he turned a corner and spotted Sydney waiting for him just up the road, seated on a slab of fallen masonry with a patient half-smile. Riku almost expected to see Ashley as well--no one else could have forged so strong a Keychain out of materials so delicate--but the prophet was alone.

"I'm not dreaming," Riku asked as he approached, "am I?"

"Not entirely. Your body is asleep, but your mind has questions."

"You could say that."

Sydney chuckled, untroubled by Riku's wary tone. "You'll be wondering what your limitations are, I suppose."

Riku shook his head, summoning his Keyblade but not daring to remove the Keychain, not yet. He wasn't sure he'd wake up if he did, not if it was the Dark that had sent him here. "I can't use this," he said, low and urgent. "I--those _things_ we saw here in the city--"

"The Cold Ones," Sydney agreed, not pretending he didn't understand the problem--and no matter how you looked at it, zombies were definitely a problem. "It's not that simple, you know. They were touched by the Dark, true, but impartially. Mostly they were just meat," he added with eerie casualness, "bodies reanimated by the spirits of things that had never been human to begin with. Their proper souls had nothing to do with it. It's different when there's actual intent involved, and when the soul is willing."

"But...." He didn't want to say it. It was stupid and superstitious, but saying it would make it possible, and he didn't think he was the right person to give that sort of power to. Sydney could probably hear every thought in his head, and part of him wished the man would tell him he was mistaken, that that wasn't what this strange new Keychain did at all. The prophet only watched him, unwavering, like he'd be content to sit there forever until Riku worked up the guts to ask him outright. "Sydney. Bringing back the dead--"

"Precisely so," Sydney cut in smoothly, one corner of his mouth curving up in something like pride. "You wouldn't be creating more monsters. You _could,_ but I don't think you're the sort to do it. Listen. Have you heard the stories told of the phoenix?"

"Sure," Riku said shakily. _"Stories."_

"There used to be a brisk trade in their plumage before they were hunted out. Then the Life spell was lost--a coincidence I find a little too timely to be an accident--and soon the only miracles that remained were the deathbed sort...and the Dark. But I think you could change that." To Riku's look of bewildered disbelief he offered a shrug, silver arms singing a high, sweet note. "You hold Darkness and Light in equal measure; to those of us on the outside, it seems a little like Fate. But it doesn't have to be," he added, almost kind. "I leave it to your discretion. Even if you never use it for that, it makes a fine weapon. I'm rather beyond such weighty philosophical matters, myself."

That was a joke and he recognized it as such, had realized from the instant he took that Keychain. "I know. You and Ashley both."

"But for different reasons," the immortal agreed with a smile. "Don't worry. You'll know when to choose."

"What makes you say that?"

"Well," Sydney said, chuckling faintly, "I _am_ a prophet."

Waking alone in the little ship cabin they'd learned to share with surprisingly little embarrassment, Riku sat up slowly, swinging his legs over the edge of his bunk and running a hand through his hair. Even knowing he'd been asleep, he couldn't tell himself that had been a dream. He'd been desperate for answers, and now he knew, and it didn't change anything.

He would have thought that Sora would be the better choice if they were handing out life-altering responsibilities, but then again, maybe not. It would kill Sora to have the power to make things better and not use it, but Riku...he wasn't sure. People died. Even when you'd prefer otherwise, people died and you went on, because that was the way life worked. He didn't know if he had the right to mess with that, and if he ever gave in to temptation, he didn't know if he'd be able to tell whether he'd be doing it for selfish reasons or because it was the right thing to do. And he couldn't tell anyone, ever, because if he never meant to use it, then....

Sora and Kairi would understand. But if anything ever happened to one of their friends, it'd hurt them if he didn't step in to fix things. And if anything ever happened to one of them....

_If the soul is willing,_ Sydney had said, but how could you possibly know that in advance? It'd be just like Sora to give up his life for others, smiling and without regrets, and if Riku pulled him back just because he couldn't let go, what then? What if it was Kairi instead?

When he couldn't stand to dwell on it any longer, he pushed himself to his feet and stumbled toward the cockpit, more tired than he'd realized. He could hear Sora and Kairi talking softly, Sora in the pilot's chair, Kairi on his right, their easy conversation touching upon everything and nothing. Folding his arms as he leaned in the doorway, Riku listened with a faint smile and let their voices wrap him up, safe and content. If either of them had asked, he couldn't have said when he'd stopped minding that he'd always be their Other, connected but external. He only knew that seeing them happy made him happy, though he sometimes wished....

He hadn't realized he'd closed his eyes until Kairi wrapped a hand around his arm and led him away from the wall, tugging him not toward the cabin to put him to bed but to Sora, who watched them with a fond smile. Taking Kairi's place in the copilot's seat, he watched in sleepy bemusement as she perched on the chair's arm, leaning comfortably back against his shoulder even as she reached across to thread her fingers with Sora's.

When he dropped off to sleep once more, he had no dreams at all, the hushed, easy sound of his friends' voices following him down into the dark.

***

Scything through a pack of Harrier Heartless, Cloud paused to catch his breath and scanned the confusion of Radiant Garden's streets, fragmentary battles being waged on every side. They'd been holding their own until the Siege Breaker put a gaping crack in the city walls, the Heartless pouring in before the town's defenders could seal the hole. It was blocked now, but the damage had already been done, and he didn't know how long it would last.

What made Cloud push himself onward, breathless and straining as he cut his way through to the walls, was seeing a long banner of silver hair, the flash of an impossibly-long sword in the fissure the Siege Breaker had left behind.

Sephiroth was still holding the wall by himself when Cloud finally arrived, cutting down Heartless with grim efficiency. Part of him warned that he should leave well enough alone, but he didn't trust Sephiroth there, playing the defender for reasons Cloud couldn't begin to fathom. Setting his jaw, he took a firmer grip on the hilt of his sword, prepared to drive the man away before he decided to betray them all.

He hadn't closed more than half the final distance before Sora and Riku arrived like an oddly-paired whirlwind, freed hearts and the death-smoke of shredding Heartless trailing up into the air in their wake. It wasn't lost on Cloud that Sora skidded to a halt at a wary distance while Riku dashed forward without a pause, sliding in at Sephiroth's back to fight beside the man like they'd done this before, often enough to make the move seem practiced.

Sora threw him a worried glance when Cloud made it to the kid's side, but all Sora said was, "It's coming back."

Cloud wasn't sure what Sora meant until he felt the ground begin to shudder beneath his feet, steady as a metronome, or at the walking pace of something very, very big.

"Yours or mine?" he heard Sephiroth ask, a faint smile in the man's tone, and he had to ignore the way his heart clenched around the words, hearing them through memory, addressed to someone else.

"I've got it," was all Riku said, and Cloud was grateful for it. If Riku had added a cocky grin or a cheerful 'boss,' he wasn't sure what he would have done.

As far as he could tell, Riku didn't do anything at all; his hands remained wrapped around the hilt of his Keyblade, and though his mouth tightened with intent, no spell followed. The Keyblade simply changed without warning, flaring suddenly with roiling shadows as the blades lengthened and fused, morphing at the end into a five-pointed sword as massive as Cloud's old Buster.

Riku was gone in a heartbeat, slipping out through the enormous crack in the wall while Sora drew a sharp breath on Cloud's left, watching his friend disappear. There wasn't room enough to see what Riku did next, but Cloud's sharpened hearing picked up a cavernous thrum so deep he felt it behind his ears more than heard it. What worried him was the glimpses he caught of Sephiroth's face, the man's slow, anticipatory smile.

All at once the sky above the wall was filled with flickering hearts, released in a storm even as the ground Cloud could see through the wall went black as pitch, suffocated by a thick pall of darkness. He could almost see things moving in the inky fog, but he didn't think they were Heartless. The Heartless that had been swarming the walls, pressing Sephiroth with suicidal determination, were utterly gone.

"Impressive," Sephiroth murmured as Cloud and Sora approached, lowering his sword and staring out across the battlefield.

"Don't get any ideas," Sora warned before Cloud could, the boy's glower more fierce than the last time Cloud had seen it.

Sephiroth only smirked, not bothering to look at either of them.

"What are you doing here?" Cloud demanded at last, not quite certain what to do with the man when they weren't fighting, confronted with Sephiroth's back in some mockery of trust.

"I was asked here as a favor."

_Riku,_ Cloud decided with an inner groan; no one else would be mad enough to ask Sephiroth for anything. "And what do you plan on asking for in return?"

"Nothing you could possibly object to," Sephiroth replied, low and intent and...Cloud believed him. He didn't know why, but he was pretty sure Sephiroth was telling the truth.

He would have argued anyway, but he could see Riku out there now, older and stronger than the boy who'd followed Maleficent around like a conflicted alley cat, taking the bait even though he could smell the poison. Confidence unshaken despite all he'd been through, Riku fought like a demon, handling a blade that should have been far too big for him with ease. He didn't seem at all troubled by the darkness that clung to the ground where he walked or by the searing columns of light that exploded around him after a brief moment of hesitation and focus.

Let Sephiroth cash in that favor, Cloud decided slowly, relieved at the change in the lost kid he'd worried over once, just a little. Riku could take care of himself.

"Oh, man," Sora murmured, standing between him and Sephiroth like he'd forgotten they were there and apt to attack each other at any moment. "I wonder if Ashley knows Riku stole his sword."

"At least he's alive to object," Sephiroth murmured, watching Riku unblinkingly.

It was the sheer unexpectedness of it, or maybe the sheer hurt in Sephiroth's voice, that kept Cloud's feet nailed to the ground, realizing with awful suddenness that something had changed, something he'd ceased waiting for but never stopped hoping for, or maybe the other way around.

Sephiroth was starting to remember. He didn't know what that meant, but he'd be damned if he did anything to fuck that up.

***

He didn't know when they'd started talking. Not the Dark, which took more effort to ignore, but the elementals riding behind his eyes. They'd been human enough once, so it was no surprise that they could talk, but he was sort of surprised they'd want to talk to him. Then again, it wasn't like they had many options.

Water had a lighter tone, cheerful and optimistic, if occasionally prone to paranoid flights of fancy. Water was imaginative, though; you had to give it that. It was only awake about half the time, seemed to prefer curling up in Riku's memory and sleeping in the midst of remembered tides until it was needed.

Fire was always there, waiting and alert, ready to burn at a moment's notice. Sometimes on long watches, when he shouldn't sleep and couldn't bring himself to keep the others awake, he found himself not just listening but talking back. Pointless things at first: commenting on the day's crop of Heartless, remarking and agreeing that they would _kill_ for a decent cup of coffee.

When Riku did finally get that perfect cup--over breakfast at Aeris' house, watching Leon watch Cloud eye Sephiroth like the man might _bite_ \--he hesitated with the mug poised just under his nose, took a deep breath, and offered a cautious invitation. It wasn't much different from linking up to pull off some really impressive pyrotechnics, right?

He didn't say a word when Kairi woke up enough to compliment the shirt he'd borrowed from Leon, how it really brought out the green in his eyes.

***

"We're in trouble, aren't we?" Aeris asked, and Leon nodded reluctantly, doubting he needed to elaborate. "I wish we knew what they wanted," she said after a moment, wistful, still strong. "If we had something to guard against, then...."

"Merlin thinks they've just reached critical mass," Leon offered slowly. "They're not very smart, most of them; it's pretty rare for them to learn new tricks. But they've been disturbed so often lately, swarming has become a habit. We've poked a Bomb with a stick too many times, and now it's going to blow up in our faces."

Aeris was silent, folding her arms and hooking her hands around her elbows, staring out through her kitchen window at her little yard, the flowers and the cherry tree just beginning to lose its blooms. Their guests were out there too, Sora and Riku chasing each other around a laughing Kairi, almost uncanny in their grace as they deftly avoided the flowerbeds.

"Do they know?"

"I think Riku does."

Aeris bit her lip, her eyes going soft and sad. "Whoever told him was an idiot."

Watching Riku swerve at the last moment, leaving Sora to crash into Kairi and trip her to the ground in a pile of tangled limbs and foolish smiles, Leon privately agreed.

***

_Where are we going?_ one of the voices in his head asked as he slipped out the back, leaving Kairi sleeping and Sora mumbling over hot chocolate with Aeris and Leon, avoiding both Cloud and Sephiroth as he slid into the gloom of the late spring night.

"To watch the fires," Riku murmured, threading his way through darkened streets to the center of town. There were bonfires here every night, what had started as a defensive precaution taking on new meaning as the weeks stretched into months. There was music sometimes, a storyteller once, and people shared whatever they had: alcohol, food, the warmth of human contact. He'd seen people go off together and meet the next morning as nothing but friends, had seen perfect strangers sit together all night without a word and remain inseparable afterwards. Sometimes he came down here with Kairi and Sora, and though he always felt better, he didn't want them here tonight.

The fires had been laid hours ago, but it'd be hours yet before they ran low on fuel. Part of him knew he could help with that, could make the air itself burn, but there was no use pretending dawn wouldn't come. Besides, the flames were beautiful as they were, fierce and fleeting, and warm.

The people he knew greeted him by name--Biggs the soldier, Jesse who helped Cid with the computer system and Shera who kept the old coot in line--but even if they hadn't been there, he would have felt welcome. No one mentioned the Heartless, and no one pushed him to talk, to assure them everything would be all right. They had each other for that; it was what these fires were all about.

Shera offered him tea in a paper cup, and he took it with a smirk she returned with a chuckle, screwing the cap back on her thermos. "It's Cid's," she offered in friendly warning. "But you don't look like you want to sleep tonight."

"Thanks," he said with a genuine smile. "You're a mind-reader."

"Now if I could just learn to speak it," she quipped lightly, and he knew she was thinking of Cid. Maybe she'd even do it tonight.

Finding a quiet place out of the way, he watched the shifting crowd for hours, listening to the murmur of their voices, watching the way they flowed in and out of each others' space. No one seemed to be able to talk without reaching out to lay a hand on someone else's arm. No one left alone without being caught by a hug.

Wrapping his arms around his knees, Riku stared into the flames and took a deep breath, letting it out slowly. "I can do this," he said, too quietly for anyone to hear unless they were sharing his ears. "But I don't think I can do it alone."

_What are we?_ Fire snapped indignantly. _Chopped sushi?_

_Hey,_ Water protested after a distracted beat, most of its attention fixed on the sitar someone had brought out on the other side of the bonfires, hands itching to play.

Riku smiled, relieved, but he had to offer. He could always remove the Keychain--and he wondered even now how these two had gotten reborn like this--leave it somewhere Sora wouldn't find until it was too late. "I could leave you behind."

_No you couldn't,_ Fire replied confidently. _Don't even try._

"Yeah," Riku said with a sigh, dropping his chin onto his knees. "Don't worry. I'll keep Roxas safe."

_Idiot. It's not_ about _Roxas anymore._

It sort of hurt, but Riku laughed anyway. "So the world really is ending."

_Not if we can help it,_ Water said cheerfully, ignoring Fire's wordless grumble. _You know, I always wanted to be a hero._

_You're a sidekick,_ Fire reminded, eye-roll audible.

_And you're a jerk, but we like you anyway. Right, Riku?_

"Yeah." What the hell. "It's a curse."

_What is it with me and mouthy brats?_ he thought he heard Fire mutter as he got to his feet, looking for the quietest path away from the light.

"Just lucky, I guess. Try to come back as a dragon next time, huh?"

_And what are you going to be?_

"Human. We can be horrifyingly kinky together and make Kairi feel validated in her predictions of my sex life."

_I love you guys,_ Water said mock-tearfully as Fire sputtered, and Riku fought not to laugh as he found a good patch of shadow, summoned a dark portal, and disappeared.

***

Aeris knew her expression wasn't what it should be when Sora and Kairi came tearing downstairs that morning, frantic and alone. "Riku," Sora began, and Aeris shook her head.

"I can't feel him anymore," she said quietly, keeping to herself the fact that he'd disappeared from the world an hour before dawn, that he could be just about anywhere by now. "He's alive, but...I think he's gone."

"The ship," Kairi said, and they were out the door before she could call them back, not that she intended to.

"You know they'll find it in the hangar," a deep, cool voice murmured at her back.

She shook her head without turning, staring through her open door with slumped shoulders. It might have terrified her once to hear Sephiroth behind her, but not anymore. It was true that he was different, but it was also true that she had very little left to lose, nothing at all if Riku failed. "They won't believe me until they search for themselves."

He was so quiet she almost thought he'd vanished again. "He'll be back," Sephiroth said at last, a thread of something she couldn't quite place in his voice. When she turned to look at him, he shrugged. "It isn't as if he went alone."

He wouldn't explain that, though, so she didn't feel right telling Sora or Kairi. She didn't want to give them false hope. All the same, even as she was praying to Gaia to keep Riku safe, she felt buoyed up by a curious sense of relief. Riku with no one to protect...there was no way that would end well. But if he'd taken someone with him, someone he'd feel responsible for...then maybe, just maybe, it'd be all right.

And maybe Sephiroth would finally explain what had brought him back to them, why he ate Riku with his eyes yet never laid a hand on the boy or even seemed tempted to. Having him in-between like this was driving Cloud mad, but Aeris was content to wait, at least a little while longer.

One way or the other, it'd all be over soon, and then she'd go after her answers with a will.

***

_Huh,_ Fire said. _Never thought I'd see this place again._

The World That Never Was had lost a lot of its former glory, if it could be called that. The empty streets were no longer empty, filled with swarming Heartless that didn't even try to mask their presence. Some of the buildings had crumbled, and here and there the streets had cracked open as if some monstrous quake had struck, steam hissing up from unused sewer lines. For all its modern look, the whole place reminded him of Leá Monde, though emptier by far even with the Heartless' presence. At least Leá Monde had been occupied once, showed the wear and care of many hands. This tall, once-perfect city had sprung from nothing and been used by no one, as hollow as the Nobodies who'd once made it their home.

Even as he thought it, Riku winced in apology. It didn't help that the voices in his head seemed more amused by his embarrassment than anything.

_So?_ Water asked, changing the subject with more kindness than finesse. _What's the plan? Uh, you do have a plan, right?_

"Yeah," Riku said absently, looking around for the highest point he could find. The irony wasn't lost on him that it turned out to be the building he'd once watched Roxas from. "I'm not saying it's a great plan, but...well, be glad they're Heartless and not Nobodies."

_Too much for you to handle?_ Fire purred.

"You wish. The Nobodies--" He stopped himself, shook his head. "You guys," he said quietly, "were still alive in your own way. The Heartless are just...shells of darkness wrapped around stolen hearts. They're not really alive," he explained, opening another portal and stepping through, catching himself automatically as the strong wind swirling around the rooftop peak threatened to shove him over the side. "But they'd like to be."

_You're about to do something crazy,_ Water--Demyx--said, _aren't you?_

Riku shrugged, calling Way to Dawn to him for what he suspected might be the final time. "No clue. Sydney said I'd know when to choose...well, I'm still not sure, but it's the best plan I've got."

_Riku._ Axel's voice was sharp, too controlled.

"Do you think you could buy me some time?" he asked, swallowing down an embarrassing and unexpected lump in his throat. "I'm not asking for the whole way. Just--"

_Shut up and call us,_ Axel grated. _And keep in mind that I'm going to kick your ass when this is all over._

"All right," he said, feeling his Keyblade shift in his hands, grow heavy and sharp. "It's a deal."

The heft and length of the Rood Blade felt far too familiar, and that distracted him as he gathered the power to give the elementals form, aimed it with will and intent and--oh. He was an _idiot._

Grinning widely, he made the choice Sydney had warned him about, made it because it was right and necessary and because he _wanted_ to, wanted to see the dumbfounded look on Axel's face when he brought the man back, all the way back, heart and all. It'd been in his keeping for months now, after all, and it was only his own blindness that had kept him from seeing it.

***

"Kairi!" Sora yelled as he tore up the path to Aeris' house, and that was wrong, maybe, because he hadn't decided yet whether to tell her or not, though she'd kill him if he left her behind this time. "Kairi, come on! Let's go! It's--" Cloud in the doorway, pivoting aside just in time to avoid getting tackled. "--Riku! We've got to hurry!"

"Sora?" Aeris asked, rising from her dejected slump on the couch. "What--it's only been a few hours--"

"It's Riku," he said again, every nerve and every muscle screaming at him to keep moving, to _run._ He suspected he looked a sight, wild-eyed and pale, but he didn't much care so long as he didn't worry them into trying to stop him. "I know where he is. It's...can't you _hear_ him?"

Kairi came skidding down the stairs two at a time, nearly falling once, but she had their packs in her hands, like she must be hearing him too.

He nearly jumped a foot when Leon came stalking through the open door, clapped Cloud on the shoulder in passing and motioned urgently for Aeris to follow. "I don't know what he's done, but every Heartless for miles just picked up and left. It could be a--"

"Left?" Aeris demanded, eyes flickering between Leon and Sora. "Left for where?"

"The World That Never Was," Sora replied, closing his mouth with a snap when he realized he had an echo.

Sephiroth had always looked a little out of place in Aeris' home, but not today. It was something in the eyes, a strong gleam of sanity and determination that hadn't been there before, and though curiosity was going to eat him alive, there wasn't time to question the soft, pained sound Aeris made or the sudden hope that turned Cloud's face more vulnerable than Sora had ever seen it.

Feline eyes raked each of them in turn, gravitating back to Sora as Sephiroth shrugged with a rustle of blue-black feathers. "You've been Heartless," he said, "or Nobodies," he added, glancing briefly at Kairi. "You hear him best. But I've been dead more times than I can count, and I hear him too. He's calling us," he said slowly, fierce gaze going unfocused as he cocked his head to listen. "Shall we go?"

"Can you take us?" Kairi asked, stepping forward unafraid.

"Come," Sephiroth replied, holding out his hands.

Sora had a vague impression of Cloud lunging their way before the whole world went black.

***

Axel had almost forgotten what a pain in the ass it was to have a body, but things still worked just the way he remembered them. Which was all for the good, because he didn't have time to stop and marvel at the miracle involved in having a body at all. Riku, not happy with the Heartless they already had, seemed bound and determined to call them all to him at once, and there were too many things that needed burning to worry about anything else.

One nice thing was that Riku had apparently screwed up somewhere, because no matter how much magic he poured into his flames, he never seemed to run dry.

"Holy shit," Demyx breathed on Riku's other side, fair skin going even paler as he realized the same thing, and they briefly traded glances, grinning hugely in shared delight. It was like being an elemental in human form, and wasn't _that_ the handiest thing ever?

Charring a path through a pack of Neoshadows, Axel began to think that they might be able to do this after all.

And he'd keep on thinking that just so long as he remembered not to look down, way down, to where the Heartless were heaping in ever-growing piles, all the way up to the second-story windows and climbing over each other to get to them.

***

Riku kept his eyes shut tight, his brow pressed to the cool flat of the Rood Blade he held uplifted, close to his chest. It was both easier than he'd expected and far more difficult to call the Heartless in number. Easier because their darkness was something he could shape and command; harder because it was like waving a red flag at the Dark. He wasn't afraid of it anymore, but he'd never been _interesting_ to it before, not like this. It had fed him and fueled him all his life, even when he hadn't realized what it was, natural and unobtrusive as breathing. This...this was different.

 _Come,_ he kept calling, over and over again, _come back, come home._ And when he thought he'd reached the limits of his abilities, the Dark stirred inside him, carrying his voice even further. _It's time to rest._ God, he was so tired. _I can end this._

It was the stolen hearts he called to, dead enough in their own way, and the Dark held ultimate authority over the dead. Pulled at inside and out, the Heartless streamed through fast-flicker portals in droves, and watching them pour in like that was what had made Riku close his eyes in the first place. He hadn't realized there would be that many of them at once, but the universe was a big place. If it weren't for Axel and Demyx keeping them off him, he would have been overrun in minutes.

He didn't know how much longer they could hold out, but he was half afraid to stop. _Now?_ he wanted to ask, feeling the darkness grow all around him, heavy and ominous. _Is this enough?_ Just how much darkness could one world hold?

_**Now,**_ he heard, one word in many voices, the Dark speaking to him directly for the first time.

It was a little like what he'd done to Axel and Demyx, but cruder and all in a single, rough stroke, more like throwing a bucket of paint at a canvas than trying to recreate the detailed image of all that they were and had been. Feeling gingerly for the place inside him where the Dark grayed away and faded into Light, he knew he had it when everything reversed, the drawing of the dark changing its flow in a firestorm of light.

_Live,_ he thought giddily as he dropped to his knees, pushing with everything he had. _Live, live, live._

Shadows shredded and boiled away. Hearts rose, drifted, and popped like soap bubbles, not destroyed but winking out in silvery sparks, streaking like comets back to where they'd come from. They were all going back, Sora's trick of setting things right pulled off with systematic intent, reminding those hearts of where they belonged and firing them with all the power they needed to get there. The Dark itself would do the rest, giving back the bodies it had collected, those curled shapes he'd sensed within it, sleeping until they were called.

Opening his eyes wide against the glare, Riku thought for a moment that he was finally watching the sun come up on the Nobodies' world, except that the sun was right there with them, floating between the buildings and just cresting the edge of the roof as it drifted heavenward. Some distracted part of him wondered why he hadn't gone blind before he realized the vast cloud of light rising ponderously up had been the heart of a world, that it wasn't alone.

He sort of wanted to curse in awe, long and feelingly, and maybe he even was; he'd gone stone deaf at some point in the face of a low, insistent humming that rattled his bones and made his teeth ache in sympathy. There were hands on his arms, someone pulling him up, but the Light wasn't done with him yet, tugging and straining to reach every stray heart it could. _**Go back,**_ he thought he heard it saying when his own voice faltered. _**Go back and be whole.**_

Dazed and fading fast, he wondered confusedly whether it was talking to him, but then he was falling; then he was gone.

***

She couldn't believe it. It didn't seem fair that they'd come so far, got _Sephiroth_ on their side, and still arrived too late. They'd even had Cloud with them, fighting to keep them _all_ safe, but when the light Riku had called faded at last, the world was wiped clean, with no sign of their friend anywhere.

There weren't any Heartless either, but she would have traded a lifetime of fighting and peering into shadows for one of Riku's crooked little smiles.

"Riku?" Sora called hesitantly, his voice echoing down empty streets. Turning a slow circle in the intersection where they'd made their stand, he stopped all at once, staring up at a tall building that made him shiver for reasons she could only guess at. "Riku...?"

"He's here," she said quickly, though she wasn't at all sure. "Somewhere. We can't have been too...."

Cloud and Sephiroth said nothing, and that worried her more than anything. It wasn't like them to agree.

The look Sora shot her was desperate, and she bit her lip as he balled his fits up and took a deep breath, yelling as loud as he could. " _Riku!_ Come on, this isn't fu--"

"Yeah, yeah," a sharp tenor drawled, "hold your horses. I swear he's getting taller by the minute, and I don't see _you_ carrying him...Sora."

She couldn't move. She absolutely _could not_ move, not even when she saw Axel turn the corner with Riku in his arms, Riku's fair head tucked comfortably against Axel's shoulder. Even seeing a second Nobody at his side--she thought his name was Demyx--couldn't break her from her paralysis. Riku. Riku was--

"Riku's here," she heard herself say, and then Sora was running, and she was running after him.

"What--Axel--how is--what did--Riku!" Sora babbled in a rush, practically running them down before he skidded to a stop.

"He's still breathing," Axel said, "but more than that, I can't say. If you've got a healer somewhere, this would be a pretty good time to introduce us."

"Aeris," Cloud said, shrugging when they all turned to face him. "She's the best healer I know. Can you get him back to Hollow Bastion?"

Kairi nearly protested, wanting Riku to come with them or they with him, though she didn't even know whether Axel could transport three or Sephiroth five. The two Nobodies settled it when Axel and Demyx traded a look, Demyx disappearing in a portal of shifting shadows without another word spoken.

"I'll take that as a yes," Axel said, which made no sense at all, and then he was gone too, taking Riku with him.

"Here," Sephiroth ordered, though it sounded more like an offer, and he didn't even stiffen as they all grabbed whatever part of him was most handy: his arm, a fistful of feathers, Cloud's hand settling hesitantly at the small of his back.

She might have known Sephiroth's control was as impressive as his reputation. She barely had time to blink, and then she was opening her eyes in the middle of Aeris' living room, wincing a little as Aeris practically threw herself at Sephiroth and grabbed him by the straps.

"The Great Maw," she said, shaking him a little, her eyes wild and bright and on the verge of spilling over. "He's there. I can feel him. _Hurry."_

"Riku?" Kairi asked, wondering why Aeris looked so happy to be shoved impatiently away, Sephiroth disappearing so fast the air displaced by his passing gave a breathy hiss as the void was filled.

Aeris shook her head, smiling even as Axel kicked in the door. "No," she said, beaming as Cloud went very, very still. "Not Riku. _Zack."_

***

He woke slowly to the sound of laughter, not in the room but just outside, Sora and Kairi's familiar tones joined with others, some of which he could place and some he couldn't. The other woman was definitely Aeris--he'd know that infectious giggle anywhere--and one of the male voices sounded like Demyx, hunched over in hysterics by the sound of him. There was another voice that sounded like Cloud, though he'd never heard the man laugh before, and even now it sounded shy of itself; he was pretty sure the chuckle was Sephiroth's, only without the edge of mockery. The last voice he heard raised in laughter was a complete mystery, but he liked it all the same.

Blinking his eyes open, he shifted experimentally and found himself weak as a kitten, half-smothered under layers of quilts in one of Aeris' spare bedrooms. One of his hands he couldn't move at all, and he tried vainly to lift that arm before he realized his hand wouldn't move because his fingers were laced with someone else's, and that someone wasn't letting go.

"About time you woke up," he heard, and he glanced over to find Axel sitting in a chair pulled up to his bedside, looking tired, content and very much alive.

"Weird," he said scratchily, not really in command of his own mouth at the moment.

Green eyes narrowed at once. "What?"

"Hearing you talk outside my head."

Axel snorted but didn't look particularly put out. Riku supposed he could be terribly, terribly disturbed by the whole thing later, after he figured out just how much snooping Axel had done while he was in there. "Sora?" he asked, because he always worried about Sora; it was what he _did._

"Kairi's problem."

"Uh...no, I meant...huh?"

Axel scowled. "I thought we'd covered this already."

Riku stared for a moment until memory caught up-- _this isn't_ about _Roxas anymore_ \--and realized that maybe they had. "Oh. I _thought_ I saw the world ending."

"Wiseass," Axel muttered, but he didn't look away. "So? How are you feeling?"

Like he'd been hit by a truck. Like someone had parked a gummi ship on his head. Like he'd totally gone back on all his best intentions and tried to resurrect half the cosmos in one go.

Like maybe he'd found something he'd been looking for and liked what he saw.

"Fine," he said after a long moment, briefly tightening his grip on Axel's hand. "I feel fine."

"Yeah? Well, you look like hell. Go back to sleep, huh? I'll believe you're fine when you can walk without falling flat on your face."

"Give me a few hours," he said with a smile, eyes already closing. "We'll take a little tour of the town."

"Oh? Going to show me off to your adoring public?"

"If we wait until dark, maybe they won't run screaming," he teased, grinning a little at Axel's soft huff of laughter. "We can go watch the fires."

"Spoiling me already."

Really, he felt better than fine, but he fell asleep before he could tell Axel so.

Something told him the man already knew.


End file.
